The invention relates to water spigots and more specifically to an outdoor hose bib that is connected to a pressurized water source pipe.
The present state of the art outdoor hose bibs have an inlet port, an outlet port and a fluid passageway connecting between them. They have a neck potion extending upwardly from the top surface of the hose bib and a valve stem aperture extends downwardly from the top end of the neck portion to communicate with the fluid passageway. The bottom end of the valve stem has structure for sealing off the flow of water through the valve body of the hose bib but it requires multiple revolutions of the valve stem. Part of the bottom end structure is usually a rubber or plastic washer that becomes ineffective after numerous times of opening and closing of the water flow. The result is periodic drips of water that escape the outlet port of the hose bib and as the washer further deteriorates the amount of drippage increases. The top end of the valve stem is normally rotated by a round wheel shaped handle or a T-shaped handle. The top end of the valve stem is often packed with string that with time tends to allow water to seep upwardly along the outer surface of the valve stem. After a certain period of time this water leakage becomes almost continuous.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel dripless hose bib that eliminates water leakage through the front end of the valve body and leakage along the outer surface of the top end of the valve stem.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel hose bib that only requires a xc2xc turn of its handle to obtain a full un-restricted flow and likewise only a xc2xc turn of its handle to stop all flow of water through the hose bib.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel hose bib that is easily and quickly assembled.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel hose bib that is economical to manufacture and market.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel hose bib that is easily installed.
The dripless hose bib has for its primary component a valve body with a fluid passageway extending from its rear inlet port to its front outlet port. The front end of the valve body has external garden hose thread formed adjacent its front end. The valve body has a neck portion extending from the top surface of an intermediate portion. The neck portion has a valve stem aperture in its top end that communicates with the fluid passageway of the valve body. A ball valve is inserted into the inlet port of the valve body and positioned directly below the valve stem aperture. The ball valve has a bore hole that extends from its front end through to its rear end. The ball valve also has a notch formed on its top surface.
Positioned adjacent the respective front and rear surfaces of the ball valve are a pair of ball valve seals that ride the spherical shape of the ball valve to provide the actual water seal. A valve body plug is threaded into the inlet port to capture the ball valve in the valve body. The valve body plug has a threaded rear aperture that would be screwed onto the external threads on the front end of a pressurized water source pipe. Different styles of valve body plugs can have a different rear structure that allows for interchangability that would allow a valve body plug to be screwed onto a supply line using compression American Pipe Threads (NPT), compression threads (SAE 45xc2x0), internal xe2x80x9csweatxe2x80x9d fitting and external xe2x80x9csweatxe2x80x9d fitting.
The vertically oriented valve stem has a head on its bottom end that mates with the notch formed in the top surface of the ball valve. Additional structure allows the valve stem to be journaled in a valve stem nut that is screwed into the top end of the neck portion of the valve body. A four-sided shank portion is formed adjacent the top end of the valve stem that mates with a four-sided aperture in the front end of a lever handle. A nut screwed onto the top end of the valve stem keeps the entire assembly together. The lever handle has a rotation limit flange extending downwardly from its front edge that rides along an arcuate shoulder formed in the top end of the neck portion. The arcuate shoulder also has stop limit walls adjacent each of its ends. The lever handle merely requires a xc2xc turn to obtain a full-unrestricted flow.
The valve body can be composed of casted brass, bronze, stainless steel, PVC, ceramic, composites or any other suitable material for the design and function. Its front outlet port has an axis directed downwardly from the horizontal that makes it easy to clean out the valve and supply line. Also it helps to prevent a hose attached to its front end from partially collapsing under its own weight and thereby restricting full flow of water therethrough.
The handle is preferably a die-casted part, but can be adapted to serve the physically challenged users by having a larger paddle, or for ornamental reasons the handle can take on common shapes (i.e. birds, squirrels or other animals and such).